• With Kate Measham
  • 26th October, 10.00-12.00am
  • £75 for five classes, from the Southampton City Art Gallery Collections
  • This class will be via Zoom. You will be sent information about Zoom when you book your place for the lesson, and a link on the morning of the class.
  • A video will be available after the class. If you are unable to be with us on on the day you may purchase access to the video for £15.


Southampton City Art Gallery holds one of the finest collections of art in the south of England and holds ‘Designated’ status, awarded by Arts Council England. Currently comprising over 5,000 works and spanning eight centuries, the collection is an outstanding educational resource that can trace the history of European art from the Renaissance to the present.

The core, however, is British twentieth century and contemporary art. This class will be looking at work by Malcolm Drummond, a member of the Camden Town Group.


What to expect in ‘On the Shoulders of Giants’ class

In this class you will be looking at a particular picture: Malcolm Drummond’s In the Park (St James’).


The Camden Town Group held just three exhibitions in 1911–12, but its name has become synonymous with a distinctive period in the history of British art before the First World War.

Named after the area of north London where a number of the artists lived and worked, the group aimed to reflect the realities of modern urban life.

The palette used by Drummond will form the basis of the class. You will be copying aspects of the picture and applying the information to a contemporary photograph of a Southampton park.

You will be drawing, looking at tonal values in both pictures. Next, a colour sketch experimenting with Drummond’s colours on the Riverside Park photo. A final picture should be started in the class, and finished in your own time.


The class is designed to get you to apply different approaches to your art practice. How can you paint a picture that adds more to a photograph? Use the photograph as a tool. How can you learn from past masters, and apply what you have learnt? Remind yourself to take risks – what is the worst that can happen? Apply what you have learnt to your own work, to your own landscapes, and other paintings. Don’t just do an exercise ONCE – keep playing around with the ideas and see where it takes you.

Riverside Park, Southampton

Materials

  • Please print out the two photos
  • 5B pencil and cartridge paper and drawing equipment
  • oil, pastels or acrylic (whatever media you are happiest using). Kate will work in pencil for the drawings, then in oil paints throughout the sketches and final picture.